NationStates Jolt Archive

I was watching a random low-budget horror film the other day when it occurred to me: why are scary films scary? What is it about them that makes people scream or have nightmares for the next fifty years? I decided to find out by asking YOU. So, my question is, what do you find scary in films?

For me, a good horror film always has the killer wearing a mask. Clown masks are the worst. Smiling clown masks are the epitome of scary.

Please, no Bambi - that's just too scary. :)

Suspence. Just the suggestion of something that is going to happen, but nothing happens and you expect it any moment.

the music.

Scariest movies for me involve one of two things. A purely evil presence, or a deranged psycopath murderer. In my mind, both of those things are real (evil presence only applies if it is done in a genuinely non-cheesey way. i.e. the ring, gothika, exorcist)

Exorcist is still the scariest movie for me, probably because i saw it at 4 years old. It is genuinely scary though, because i believe that sort of thing happens. Things with monsters that live in the hills don;t scare me, things with aliens dont scare me.

the grudge has been the scariest film for me (english version,) cos it was for 15 year olds, and i havent seen many scary films that are 15 as i am only 14 :rolleyes: , the freeky, demented grudge which was a woman who was killed by her husband along with her child (his son) the music and the way the grudge killed people was really freaky and unusually, and another film was one (cant remember what it is called) was where a house was made out of glass and ghosts or demons were trying to kill them and this the glass moved around so they were always lost.

Quite freaky.

the grudge has been the scariest film for me (english version,) cos it was for 15 year olds, and i havent seen many scary films that are 15 as i am only 14 :rolleyes: , the freeky, demented grudge which was a woman who was killed by her husband along with her child (his son) the music and the way the grudge killed people was really freaky and unusually, and another film was one (cant remember what it is called) was where a house was made out of glass and ghosts or demons were trying to kill them and this the glass moved around so they were always lost.

Quite freaky.

Thirteen Ghosts?

The vast majority of scary movies just don't do it for me anymore...

I guess I've become too desensitized... I'm also not a believer in virtually anything supernatural, so I easily write most of them off as impossible fiction...

Heck, I don't even jump when I'm "supposed" to... The "SURPRISE!" moments are always way too telegraphed, and they never catch me off- guard...

Plus, I find most scary movies to be more humorous than anything...lol

However, one scary movie "bad guy" gets to me more than any of the others... And that "bad guy" is the zombie...

Zombie movies creep me out pretty well, only because I get to thinking about how horrible that would be if it happened... A psycho killer on the loose (supernatural or otherwise)? Easily handled... Either avoid him and the area, or go after him and end it (one way or the other) in a face to face confrontation... No need to be scared...

But an entire army of your peers out to kill and eat you? And perhaps some of them are people you knew? And if they're the modern zombies that can actually move rather than the old school zombies that just lumber around groaning, it's even worse...

There's nowhere to run, nowhere to hide... And no help... Even if you manage to stumble upon some other "survivors"... You're still outnumbered, and surrounded...

There's zero chance of defeating them... Freddy, Jason, the Scream guys, Michael Meyers, etc, etc... They can all be taken down by a lone human that's willing to stand and face them...

But zombies? Not a chance... You're basically screwed from day one...

Even if you can manage to run away, you'll have nowhere to go... Find a safe spot? Not for long... Manage to kill a bunch of them? There's plenty more where that came from... And if you do manage to live for a relatively long time afterward, what kind of life is that? Living in a ruined world, with nothing operating, and most, if not all, of the people you knew or could ever know are either dead or out to kill you? No chance of ever living a normal life... No chance of ever finding happiness again... A constant life of running, hiding, and being terrified and depressed... Not cool...

So yeah, out of everything out there, Zombie movies are the only ones that manage to get to me... And even then, it's never on an "AHHH!" sort of level, it's always on a sort of "Damn, that would really suck" level... Although, I do sometimes find myself looking over my shoulder for a few days after watching one...lol

get serious!

get serious!

About what?

get serious!
LMAO :D

awwww. :fluffle:
Don't let those evil mods get to you.

Now there's an idea for a good scary movie: Psychomods

One thing that I find does *not* make a scary film is gore. Many people seem to think that really gory films are scarier, but I find not. That's probably just me, though.

Now there's an idea for a good scary movie: Psychomods

That's an awesome idea. And "Hack" is a good serial killer name.

One thing that I find does *not* make a scary film is gore. Many people seem to think that really gory films are scarier, but I find not. That's probably just me, though.

I like this type of film (I always love it when someone has gangrene on Casualty and they 'accidentally' pull their foot off), but I don't find them scary either.

I was watching a random low-budget horror film the other day when it occurred to me: why are scary films scary? What is it about them that makes people scream or have nightmares for the next fifty years? I decided to find out by asking YOU. So, my question is, what do you find scary in films?

For me, a good horror film always has the killer wearing a mask. Clown masks are the worst. Smiling clown masks are the epitome of scary.

Please, no Bambi - that's just too scary. :)
Jack Nicholson. Even if it's a comedy he's still scary.

Jack Nicholson. Even if it's a comedy he's still scary.
And Barbara Streissand

Yeah, I agree that gore doesn't really make a movie scary. I have'nt really been scared from a movie for a long time. But what will get a chill down me is something unexpected to just appear or a that sorta look when something you wouldn't expect to be innocent and good goes evil.

Also, I didn't find the Grudge scary at all, I mean boy making cat sounds was very weird but it still wasn't scary. Plus I saw the woman corpse half of the time before she did anything. Same thing with the Ring, it was good becuase it had a plot to it unlike most horror films. But it still wasn't scary.

I don't really know. I mean, the original Japanese version of the ring is the scariest movie I've ever watched (because I avoid horror like the plague, usually) and for most of that movie, nothing happens. it's just tension, really. What could happen, as opposed to what has happened. I agree though. Gore does not a scary movie make.

BOO!

That do it?

To me, it seems as though it's really a combination between disgust and surprise. You must surprise them in a bad way. Tension factors in, by making the surprises worse.

Suspence. Just the suggestion of something that is going to happen, but nothing happens and you expect it any moment.
Have to agree with you totally there, legless. Our imagination's far more grusome than anything they could put on screen. That's why 'The Shining' is my all-time favourite Horror movie. The build up of suspense is almost painful.

And to SSGX, glad to see I'm not the only one who feels like that about zombies. I used to have nightmares about them for years when I saw 'Day of the Dead' when I was a kid (like 7 or 8). Creeped me out totally. The thought that there is no hope at all.
Speaking of zombies, I watched "Shaun of the Dead" last night (went into China at the weekend and stocked up on DVDs. Woohoo!). It wasn't bad, could have been funnier though. But well worth the $8RMB ($1US/$0.75Euro) it cost.

BOO!

That do it?
Excuse me while I go change my pants.

Take a normal everyday nice situtation. One in which anyone would feel comfortable and relaxed. Like in your house, surrounded by the people you love. Now, have something happen to make it strange, inconstant, dangerous. And it's not the fear of death that really scares you, it's the feel of pain (and then death).

The Ring and The Grudge work because they have that sort of familiar situation turned on its head. Just like the early Stephen King and Clive Barker. Even Henry James did it in Another Turn of the Screw. Setting up an innocent situation and then perverting it.

It's like pulling the rug from under your feet. And it's very hard to do it well, very few movies accomplish it, prefering to go for the "boo!" factor than to build up real fear.

Oh! And having the main character lose his/her mind slowly and without realizing it also works. The possibility of losing my mind scares me more than death.

Immersion, you've got to really be into the story.
I watched Event Horizon at the flicks and it really got to me, there wasn't any monsters or much gore until the end but it really made you think the ship had been to hell and back.
Watching it on the TV just wouldn't have the same impact.

Music makes a film scary.

Music is essential, but it needs the help of a plot, or at least characterization god enough to draw you into the film. Just great music, with a crap story and cardboard characters is not scary.

I think... the idea that something might be waiting around the corner. That something is hiding behind that door. That, perhaps, the empty house isn't quite so empty.

Of course, as soon as the "something" is spotted, the fear is gone.

Except when it's a zombie.

Why oh why :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: ugh the Grudge :mp5: is so stupid it is one of those stupid movies that only make money because of the hordes of stupid kids that thorow their parents money away in the hopes of some cheap scare tactics. Movies like the Grudge and Boogeyman(made by the same people as the grudge) should never be made. oh and no offence to anyone who likes the Grudge I work at a movie theater and am still kinda pissed at the idiotic teenagers I had too deal with when Boogeyman opened

For me it's always an after the fact realization of danger that is scary. When people think they are truly safe while in the presence of evil kind of stuff.